A Slower Week. Big Changes.

Hello everyone!

This week was a slower week. We saw a bunch of people, but just not a lot happened. Elder Larson and I are being diligent though, and we feel it's just a mini trial of our faith. We'll get over this hump soon and start seeing the miracles flowing! I hope your alls week has been good!

Well, news of the week! On Friday, we had District Meeting at the church! It was great. This was Davis' last District Meeting in this area, because he is headed out! Surprise news of the week though! I'm the new District Leader! Got that call on Saturday while we were visiting with Samantha from President Salisbury. I'm to accept my calling with enthusiasm and excitement! (And maybe a little fear. He didn't mention that part. :P) I'm pretty excited, and I hope that I can live up to my calling! Say a quick prayer for me and my poor district members that have to listen to me if you all would. :)

But yeah, District meeting. We learned and discussed mostly about scriptures and knowing them for situations that we are put in. It was a good lesson, and we had a good talk. In my studies later in the week, thinking about this, I found a lot about how I can make bashing opportunities turn into teaching opportunities. I've made that a category of marking in my scriptures. Isn't that cool?

Sunday was an interesting day too! Due to immense amounts of snow on Saturday (We're talking like a whole two inches), church was postponed until 1, and we only had a Sacrament meeting. It was great though! Scrambling to put together a program, the bishop and his counselors were inspired to have a testimony meeting instead. I'm grateful that they made that change. So far I've heard 4 people say they were strengthened because of that meeting, including myself. There were a lot of awesome things said and testified about in that meeting. The Spirit was strong. (And I had the chance to pass the sacrament, so that's always a spiritual experience!)

The sisters in Bluefield had drove down to come to church with us too! Their church was cancelled, and it was Sister Lichtenstein's last Sunday in the mission field, so I think she wanted to go to church. She bore a powerful testimony about her mission and the blessings that missionary work gives. It was awesome. You go Sister L!

That's really all the news for this week. More snow on the horizon it sounds like! I hear out in Utah ya'll might be getting some too. Have fun! Drive safely!

I love you all! Thank you for your constant support of me and your prayers in my behalf and in behalf of the people we see. I testify I know this work is true and this is what The Lord wants me to be doing. Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

A selfie for Mom from the library.

Typical Utah kid in freezing weather. Where is your coat Elder???
This was sent to my Mom via a wonderful sister in my current ward. Thank you!!!

An Extra Long Week

Hello family and friends!

The week started off slowly, with Elder Larson and I going around and seeing as many people as we could. We had a number goal of getting a certain amount of lessons taught this past week so that we could get a handle on just how many people we have to see week to week. We ended up with 15 other lessons at the end of the week. What a number! That's quite a bit for our mission. It was nice to be able to share a whole bunch of gospel messages and try and strengthen everyone that we saw. Keep praying for them everyone! They just need a little more encouragement.

Wednesday we saw S & CH at Sh's house again. We were getting her prepared for her confirmation on Sunday. More on that later. The lesson was good. We mostly answered her questions about the gospel that she had. Just stuff that doesn't really need to be taught in the lessons, but covered once she's a member.

On Thursday we did some service at the K again! That's always a fun time. This time I was one of the “plate-r’s” meaning I scoop Ravioli onto a plate and hand it down to the next guy. It was a lot of fun, and the people there are slowly starting to become more comfortable with us. We are able to have gospel conversations with them, and a woman from the food kitchen we work with offered to feed us dinner sometime this week! How cool is that? Miracles are everywhere, even if they take some time.

Friday was a great day! Nothing really in particular, we just worked ourselves to the breaking point and were really tired that night. It left a good feeling inside.

Valentine’s day was interesting! Nobody really wanted us to come over, and everyone who would've been willing was out doing something with someone! So we tried to make ourselves busy until it was time for basketball that night.

On Saturday though we did have the chance to see Ch. and S. after they were done with their day date. We talked about The Holy Ghost and were fed by Sh. again! Hamburgers this time. Mmmm.

Here is where it gets interesting! Sunday! Saturday night it started to snow. Not hard. Maybe half an inch at most, but by goly it was COLD. Like, 9 degrees cold. Also the 20 mph wind. It was basically 15 below. Freezing! What tends to happen in these states when that comes around is stuff starts shutting down to prep for the incoming storm. Lots and lots of ice as well.

Well, because of all these factors, Church was cancelled! :( Oh well. S. is still lingering in limbo! Unconfirmed. I'm sure the Lord understands. She will be confirmed on the 22nd, Ward Conference.

Monday we headed to Hillsville to hang out with the other elders for P-day, like we do. It was fun! We had a good time in their apartment and went to a couple lessons with them in the middle of the day. Well, lo and behold, we hadn't looked outside since we got there, and it had been quite a few hours, but when we went out, there was 2 inches of snow on the ground, and it was coming down! Lots and lots of snow! In total, we got around 6 inches, which apparently is a dang TON for here. That's nothing for Boston apparently though!

Well, with all this snow, there was a lot of work to be done! The snow cancelled all of our plans for Tuesday, so we threw a couple layers on, grabbed our snow shovels, and went to work! All the money we were offered taught me that apparently shoveling snow is a lucrative business. When I get home that may be worth considering! It's hard work though. Good manual labor. I didn't know hands could get sore. Apparently!

I love you all! Thank you for always being supportive of me and for praying for me and my investigators. I am grateful for all of you, and will write to you all next week! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Brax Johnson

The Bluefield Zone

Elder Davis the Turtle.

A face only a mother could love. :)

The storm on Sunday (Church was cancelled)????

The storm on Saturday night.

Elder Garrett and I. Snowed in at Hillville.

While they were out shoveling...

We took pictures of ourselves inside. See above with Elder Garrett. :)

My shoveling attire.

All the snow is moved. We are such hard workers.

My ties. :)

My food. :) YUM!

A wonderful baptism!!!

Hello everyone! 

We had a baptism yesterday! Woo hoo! S. has entered the waters of baptism and will be confirmed next Sunday (by myself)!

The week started out pretty rough. After emailing on Monday, we headed up to Hillsville to be with the other elders so that Elder Larson could take a break from the house. We chilled with them for a while before spending the next two days inside. (Tuesday and Wednesday) We didn't do a whole lot for those two days. I studied a lot, we organized a Whiteboard (A very large whiteboard), and hung around. Blessings were given, medicine was taken, and patience was had. That's all we could do, right?

Thursday we had Zone Meeting in Princeton! It was a lot of fun. I got to see Elder Bingham again, whom I came out with, and also got to see a couple other missionaries I know and say hi to them! It was awesome. Elders Rueda and Trujillo and Sisters Hutchings and Francis (The Sister Trainer Leaders for our Stake) gave a great Zone Meeting! A lot of rules were initiated in this Zone Meeting, which was kinda sucky, because you know that rules only come about because of dumb missionaries. Anyway!

The last half of Zone Meeting we just focused the whole time on how to be more effective and better missionaries, how we can learn the Gospel of Jesus Christ better, and how we can love each other and love the people where we are serving. :) It was a great Zone Meeting. Very enlightening. 

After returning home, we were pretty tired of sitting in the apartment all day, and Elder Larson said he was feeling better, so we went out and actually did some work! We had dinner with the V. family that night, and Brother V. took us out to see some families after we ate. We saw the Gr. family, an older Recent Convert couple of around 6 months now, and we also saw S., to get her prepared for Sunday. All things went well. We shared a few scriptures, and laughed a lot.

Friday was a slower day, but for the end of the day we were able to go see D. and her husband D.! D. is a Less-Active, and we were able to have a good gospel conversation with her and get them excited about church. It was great. She's an awesome lady. Hopefully if all goes well, we will be able to teach D. about The Gospel and unite their family in this awesome church.

Saturday morning we were picked up by Brother V. to go back to the G.'s house! Their trailer is aged and it was around 60 degrees inside it when we went on Thursday, so we went back to put plastic over all the windows so that air couldn't seep through and freeze them to death. It was a fun little service project, and we got lunch afterward. :)

We also saw S. AGAIN that evening, along with Ch. (who would be baptizing her) and Sh., Ch.'s returning-to-activity sister. S. and Sh. are living together at the moment, so Sh. invited us over for dinner and a lesson with S. It was great! She's a good cook.

Sunday was AmAzInG!!! 

Church was great! We had three great speakers, and the last man, a fairly new guy to the area, living in the other elder's area, Brother W., absolutely killed it with his talk. General Conference level. All about loving each other and having charity. 30 minutes of love and charity. How awesome is that? He's a cool guy.

After church we went out, as we regularly do, with Brother Wh. to go see people! So awesome. We got to see and strengthen a lot of people, and it was great just to sit down with them and read a few scriptures and talk with them about their trials and troubles. I think that's what missionary work is all about, right? That and baptizing people.

Speaking of baptizing people!

The highlight of the week was obviously Sunday right after church. The baptism of S. went perfectly (other than having to be baptized twice (keep your feet on the ground dang it!) and us forgetting to turn the font off so it was still going while they were standing there lol). The baptism and Holy Ghost talks were absolutely amazing (a lot better than mine was at E.'s baptism (oh gosh the flashbacks)), and the turnout was great. A lot of people came to support her, including a couple non-member extended family members!

It was a really good day. We see, as missionaries, a lot of rejection and heartache. It just kinda comes with the work. We get firsthand experience to how hard the Savior's ministry was. We are able to relate to what Isaiah said about the Savior (in a very small way):

 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief...

but it is made worth it by watching people choose to change their lives. Seeing the Spirit work in them to the point where they change their life is the #1 best feeling this calling has to offer. In this Spirit, before I sign off, I want to leave you with a scripture from Moroni's final Testimony in Chapter 10:

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

Just think about it for a little while, and realize that life has it's thorns, but also has it's blossoms.

I love you all! Have a fantastic week! Talk to you next time!

With love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Interviews, sickness and preparing for a baptism!

Hello there everyone!

As you can guess by the title, we didn't do a whole lot this week. I've had a cold + some stupid cough since Tuesday, and my companion got hit with a nasty bought of the Stomach Flu on Thursday. All in all, not so good. Oh well! We keep trugging along. 

Had interviews with President Salisbury on Monday last week! That was a fantastic experience. He's a great man. Got to see a lot of my fellow missionary buddies too! President and I just talked about what I can do to better our companionship. He talks about becoming unified a lot in pretty much every message he sends, so we talked about how  my companion and I can become more unified. I'm still thinking about that and "pondering the possibilities" as President always says.

I left my planner in the car, so I'm not totally sure what all we did this week... let's see... what are some of the highlights...

Oh yeah! Monday night, the Hillsville elders stopped by and Elder Davis and I headed to Hillsville on exchanges! It was a blast! We went and got sick at a Chinese place for dinner and listened to a bunch of Protestants have their choir meeting there. It was... interesting. Didn't really have anything to do after that, and they live 10 miles away from the actual city where work is (Galax), so we just walked around Hillsville for a while and chatted, looking for people to street contact at like 8:30. Not very fruitful, but it was fun!

Tuesday we visited a few of their investigators, and that was fun. Didn't do a whole lot that morning, but went back to Wytheville around 5 and had dinner with P., one of our recent converts! She made some really awesome Vegetable soup, which was dearly needed in my vegetable-deprived body. (Buying some today mom and Hank, before you all freak out)

On Wednesday we taught S. again. We are getting her all prepared for baptism. President made me swear on my life that we wouldn't baptize her if she smoked from the time he interviewed her (last monday) to her baptism (next sunday). Let's hope! Pray! Pray real hard everyone! 

That's pretty much all we did this week, because on Thursday my companion really started to get sick, so we were only able to visit a couple other people during those times. We also went tracting on Thursday and Saturday, so that probably didn't help him a whole lot. 

Last thing before I go, if all of you reading this would say a prayer for R. S., one of our investigators. He recently underwent two surgeries in three days, and he left us a message the other day asking us to pray for him, because he was hurting pretty bad. :( He's an investigator that's been investigating for quite some time now.

I love you all! Thank you for all of your continued support in me! Have a fantastic week, and I'll talk to you all next week. See you all later!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

#WINNERWINNERCHICKENDINNER

Hello Family and Friends! I hope you are all doing well this week! I hope you all had a great Sunday! This is going to be a short one, because we have a lot going on today.

The main thing that happened today is two-fold! On Wednesday, we met with S. again, whom we've been meeting with for a while. The great part of Wednesday's lesson though, was it was all about baptism! We invited her to be baptized on this upcoming baptismal day, February 8th, and she accepted! Hesitantly, but accepted! Her main concern at the time was that she wanted her fiance/boyfriend/whatever to be there, because he's a less-active down in [another state] that got her started, so she says, on investigating the church. On Wednesday, we went through what she wanted have for her baptism. Who she wanted to do everything, stuff like that. She chose her friend C. to perform the actual baptism. 

So. You gotta understand, it's pretty much agreed upon in the dark corners and out of range of S&C's hearing that they would make the best couple. There were some unsubstantiated rumors about S.'s boyfriend, but we wont go into that here. Basically, you could totally tell that C. really likes S., and we were fairly certain that S. liked him, mostly because they would go on long walks together, and all this other gushy romantic stuff. 

ANYWAY. On Sunday, we are sitting in combined Priesthood waiting for it to start so we can go to Elder's quorum, when C., sitting in front of us, turns around to us and goes "oh! I forgot to tell you, S. told me she was praying a couple nights ago (Praying about decisions? We're doing our job!) and asked if her boyfriend was the right one for her, and she said she got a no for an answer! WOO HOO! C. couldn't contain himself. He had the biggest smile on his face. He's such a stand up guy. 

Come to find out in Ward Council (You bishops out there, if you are holding 3 hour ward councils, there is a special place reserved for you in you know where) that C. and S. are basically a "thing" now. #WINNERWINNERCHICKENDINNER. It's like a gosh dang Disney movie! Perfect ending! 

She is being interviewed by President Salisbury today in Bluefield (which is why we have to leave early) and will hopefully be baptized February 8th! Pray like you've never prayed before people! She can make it! We believe it! This will be my first baptism in almost 5 months (M. still counts as mine you dang critics!). It is amazing to watch the change in her as she is taking the steps to becoming a member of the church! We went over the baptismal questions with her on Wednesday, and she could confidently answer each one!

Anyway, that's my miracle story for the week. I hope you all like it! I know miracles have not ceased in our day! Don't worry Moroni, I still believe!

Love you all! Until next week,

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Holy Temperature Batman! It's January!

We're Famous!

Elder Larson got a hold of my camera!

A morning selfie for mom :)

We made the paper :)

New soles and new souls

Hello friends and family! 

This week was a slower one, but still a lot of fun! After emailing we met up with the missionaries in Hillsville and went to the rec center here in Wytheville! It was built a few years ago, so it's pretty new and happenin'. We played some Raquetball, but my favorite part was the Rock Wall. It brought back memories of completely failing at the rock wall in Salt Lake when Kyle, Ryan, and I went with Stewart. Fun times! We got a good workout with the raquetball, too.

The next day, Thursday, we headed up to Princeton, a 40 mileish drive to see everyone off at transfers! Our whole district was staying the same, but we said goodbye to one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Hadfield, who was actually my first Zone Leader! A couple other people passed through, and I got to say hi to them too. 

Inbetween the van going to Charleston, and the van coming back from transfer meeting, Elder Larson and I went to Bluefield to "blitz" the sisters area. We just ended up walking around the downtown area of Bluefield. It was a little sketchy, but we had fun. We went back to Princeton around 2 and got to see all the new people coming in! It was a blast! I saw a couple friends from earlier in my mission, and got to meet the two trainees coming into our stake! A missionary I came out with, Elder Bingham, is training for the 2nd time! He trained right after he was trained, then greenie-broke (meaning you're the companion after your new companion's trainer. Sawyer was my greenie-breaker) and now he is training again! He's an awesome guy.

The next day we had a lesson with JE, a man we've been teaching for quite some time now. Basically everything fell apart in this lesson. He claims that the biggest problem he has is believing that Joseph Smith is a prophet, because it's not in the bible, despite the scriptures that we've showed him. All we are going to do now is just read the Book of Mormon with him, because that is all we can do. Hopefully he starts praying and reading by himself. He is too focused on the Bible. But we will see what our next lesson has in store for us.

After going over there, we went to see a girl named PE, a recent convert whom I've probably written about before. We just got to chat with her and her friend who was over at her house. She found out that our dinner appointment had cancelled, so she jumped up and made us an awesome dinner! Steak and Gravy with Mash Potatoes and Green Beans. Some real southern cooking! It was awesome. She sure knows how to cook!

On Saturday, we had a combined dinner and lesson with S&J at our weekly dinner appointment with SB! We had a great Restoration lesson with S&J. S. had already heard it, but J. hadn't. We had a great lesson with her, and Sister B., C., and The Gr's all contributed to make it awesome! We set J. on date for February 8th. She is praying and reading to learn if it is true, so be praying for her! She can make her date, we believe it!

Sunday we did our usual thing and went out with Brother W! He took us to see two new people. The first was SA.  His wife and boy were both there, and we had a good old time letting them reminisce. He is a good guy.

After that, we went down the road a little bit and saw W., S's brother. He graduated with Brother W. They hadn't seen each other in years, so we spent a long time at that house. W. was in the military, and has some pretty severe PTSD. He was in Iraq in 2003.  He's a good man, and invited us back anytime. We really didn't get a whole lot of gospel discussed though. Wade and him were too busy telling old war stories from their time as a marine.

That was my week. I hope you all had a fantastic week! I love you all and am so grateful for your support. Have a fantastic day today! Thank you again for all your prayers and support in my behalf. 

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

So, I'm thinking it's time for some new soles...

Yea...

Mmmmmmmm

Pasta is a staple around here!

My amazing "Binder of Amazing Talks"

I may need another binder. The "H" section is big. I'm a Holland fan.

:)

Hi Mom.

Nose selfie from the Library this morning. :)

#miraclesallaround

Hello Friends and Family!

Another transfer gone by. 6 weeks down the rabbit hole. The 5th free throw has been swished. #nothingbutnet. Haha, anyway.

I hope youralls week was awesome! Mine was! We had some great things happen. I'm sorry I wont be giving another Consecrated Year sermon this week. Those don't come willy nilly you know! Let's start at the top.

Tuesday we had District meeting! Led by our fearless District Lordimean Leader Elder Davis, we went on a District hike to have District meeting atop an awesome lookout point. You know how old prophets went up to mountains to talk to the Lord because they could feel the spirit more up there? Yeah, well it's totally true. Genius me forgot my camera though. Sorry everyone! Know that it was really really pretty! Haha.

We met with an investigator on Tuesday again. JE! It was a pretty rough lesson, but we managed to teach The Plan of Salvation. The main problem is that he wants to be taught out of the bible, and we are trying to teach him that the bible is only one authority, that prophets are the final authority, but he just isn't getting it. He thinks that if it isn't named in the bible (Angel Moroni, coming of Christ to Americas, etc (ALL OF WHICH ARE MENTIONED, BY THE WAY )) then it can't be true. It's quite frustrating. We made a lot of progress with him though, and are seeing him on Friday, so hopefully what we talked about stuck [with him] and he is ready to be taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ. He asked me in the lesson to show him all the scriptures in the bible that talk about the book of mormon. Oh man. How grateful I am that I was raised (trained) by a missionary who knew the bible really well. I did fairly well, but I certainly did a lot of studying when I got home.

On Thursday we did our bi-monthly trip to the Food Kitchen at the Wytheville Baptist Church to help serve the good people that come there! Its a great place to meet people, and we get the leftovers! (which were delicious) it's a true Christian thing they do there. Its really what Christ and being a Christian is all about, serving and loving others. If only they had the Priesthood.

On Saturday we had the chance to teach S&J! S has been investigating the church since I've been in Wytheville, but we just picked J, her sister, up as an investigator last week! We had a really good prayer lesson with her, and S, who as of previously not even would say a prayer alone because she "felt weird" said the prayer at the end of the lesson! WOO HOOOOOO PROGRESSSSS. Oh yes. Now we just need to teach them the importance of being baptized, because both of them are a little skeptical on that subject. They did both come to church though! So that is huge for them.

Speaking of church! So, after Ward Council, I noticed that the bishop was talking to a very uncomfortable looking Elders Davis and Garrett, so I went up to investigate. I get up to them and the first thing I hear bishop say is, "How good are you two at speaking?" and in my foolishness I go, "You need a speaker?" Davis and Garrett were extremely happy to get out of the limelight and Elder Garrett congratulated me on being so awesome to volunteer. It was right around now when it dawned on my what I had just done. Bishop says, "Our youth speaker just cancelled last second. Can you speak?" This kind of thing only happens in a New Era story I thought. Oh well! So, 5 minutes later I'm on the stand rifling through Elder Larson's scriptures (because I only brought my mini quad and those pages don't stay open) trying to find something to talk about on the subject of "The plan that our Father in Heaven has for our lives." Used a scripture in James, Peter, Abraham, and somewhere else that I can't remember. I still have the little index card that I wrote my outline on in 15 minutes. I'll take a picture and send it to ya'll. But, needless to say (obviously), it was a slam dunk.(ha ha) I was really happy with it. It's awesome when The Spirit helps you with those things!

As he always does, Ward Mission Leader WW drove us around for the whole Sunday to go visit people! Among them were his cousin, D, his former boss and his less active wife, H., his childhood friend R. and his wife and son, and finally our investigators S&J to finish off the night!

The lesson with R. was incredible. We spent the first 30ish minutes letting them talk and catch up with each other, W., as he always does, turned the subject to religion. Well, I asked an inspired question (not taking credit, it was all the spirit) about his families local church attendance. It just so happens that they haven't been to church in around a year, and haven't really found where they belong yet. Hey, who are those guys in white with wings singing Hallelujah outside? It was awesome!!!! We invited them to church on Sunday, and they invited us back to their house, "anytime". If only we had the miles to get out there "anytime." ARE YOU READING THIS MISSION OFFICE? Anyway. It was great.

S&J are awesome too. J. has mistakes in his past, as we all do, but he has such a desire to be better. They talked about getting married with us, and we asked if they'd like our bishop to do it. They said yes! We will talk to our bishop on Sunday and see exactly what we need to do. It would be so awesome. They said they are coming to church on sunday, and J. is coming and playing basketball with us on Saturday night. #Miraclesallaround It is awesome to be here in Wytheville.

Our final lesson for this email was on Monday with a less active named J. Her friend N. is always over there with her, so we thought we would go teach them The Plan of Salvation today. Unbeknowest to us, J. lost a son some years ago. As we were teaching, N. had a lot of questions about The Spirit World and where we go after we die. That lead naturally into temples and their functions, and eternal families. J. started crying and we bore powerful testimony that we know she will see him again. I said, "I know that he is waiting for you, and he's so excited that you're letting us teach you right now." I could basically feel his presence there. It was amazing. She wants to come to church on Sunday, and said she was going to be bringing her daughter and two grandkids. Woo hoo! Amazing things are happening here.

That's my letter for the week! I know, it's short. ;D I hope you all have a fantastic week, may God bless you in all your endeavors! Look for miracles and missionary opportunities. They are always around us, and I promise you'll see at least one in the next week. Until next time!

Love,
Elder Brax Johnson

LOVE my new Awesome WARM and Amazing AND WARM Pea Coat. Did I say WARM? -Thank you Mom!

Love me some sunsets!!!

It looks like Ramen tonight!

Mom felt like she had too many sunsets and not enough son pictures. Here you go Mom! :)